Wordless Wednesday

 

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Sweetheart

Emily took this photo of our sweet Rosie. Doesn't she look festive?

Friday Funnies

Great way to use the one cracked egg in the group? Hee-hee!

4-H'allow's Eve Party

Occasionally I feel like I'm "Martha Stewart" and have achieved her domestic goddess status...and then I wake up.

It's not that I'm "unclever" in the kitchen...or "uncrafty"...but I often take shortcuts and can be a bit "lazy." I thought our cupcakes looked awesome...until I saw our friend's. *wink-grin* Now, I'll take this moment to point out that she's had much more experience in making them for her kids to take to school for their birthdays. Our birthday cupcakes stay home with us since our class size is much smaller.

Ahem...

Cute, huh?

Still, we had a good time at our 4-H club's Halloween party/meeting tonight.

Emily took Earl Grey as a "girl," and she dressed up as a "bunny." Quite a cute switcheroo. Her friend Sierra took her guinea pig as a princess.


There were witches and bugs and clowns and even "Zorro" costumes. Each member did a great job at making their bunnies or guinea pigs look sweet. It was hard for the judges to decide the cutest.

More Birthday Buns

In cleaning out some boxes, I came across my two Holland Lop bucks' pedigrees and noted that May 20th was their birthday (they're brothers)...their very 1st one!!

So...

HaPpY 1st BiRtHdAy, JaCk and ToNy!!

(Sorry for this doctored version...the boys are shedding.)

And the Oscar Goes to...

We started a tradition with our bunnies...

Every Saturday, they get to "go to the movies."

Well, not really, of course.

They get to experience the movies in the form of "movie carrots."

What exactly are "movie carrots" you might wonder?

In our house, these are the organic carrots found in our local Giant grocery store that come in a bright orange bunch, complete with the greens. (See this to understand the origin of the term.) You know, they actually look like carrots instead of those little stubby finger-shaped orange sticks you buy in a bag.

Since they look like something you might see Bugs Bunny munching on TV, the kids have dubbed them "movie carrots."

Not sure the rabbits care about the significance of their Saturday snack...but they do enjoy them.

Maybe once their snack receives an Oscar nomination?

Hmm... Maybe not.

But the whole tradition brought to mind a memory from when I was about Emily's age.

I used to play with a neighbor girl and her siblings. They had a huge garden in their backyard, and we used to pretend we were animals, racing through the rows of veggies, escaping entrapment from the neighbor boy who was the "hunter."

It was great fun and even better exercise for us.

When we tired, we were allowed to go into the garden and pick some of the veggies to eat. We often snacked on carrots or radishes that we plucked straight from the ground and washed off with the garden hose. It wasn't unusual to us to see "bright orange carrots complete with greens."

We'd never heard of "baby carrots."

The times...they are a-changing.

Show and Tell-All

Clemmie at 6 weeks old
So our 7-year-old had "show-n-tell" in his class at our homeschool learning group yesterday, and he wanted to take several of our rabbits.

It's never a problem to take our furry bun-kids with us on outings like this since it's great fun to share them with others.

Yesterday was a bit different though.

The church were our group meets decided that yesterday was the perfect day to repave the main parking lot...which meant that all of us had to park in the upper lot and traipse through the main doors of the church to the auditorium and classrooms which are on the complete other side of the building.

It wouldn't have been a problem sans bunnies in a cage. And it wouldn't have been such a problem if it hadn't been such a beautiful, warm Spring day -- too warm for the bunnies to stay in the car for long.

But traipse we did (four times), and it was well-worth it when the kids' eyes lit up as they saw Clementine and Jack.

Edward chatted a bit about bunnies, sharing the information he remembered (with only the teensiest bit of coaching from Mommy, of course) and listening diligently to the "questions-turned-horror-stories" the kids each had for him.

In response to one student's question about whether or not our bunnies would have more babies anytime soon, he said, "Well, they probably should 'cuz we're having a baby and need lots of money for that."

Hmm... "Lttle pitchers (do indeed) have big ears," as my parents would say. *wink*

Friday Funnies

This ad is fairly cheesy, but the rabbits are so adorable. *grin*

Wordless Wednesday

Oh, My Darlin'

We are a family full of bunnies.

I've had a pet bunny (or two) since I was 11 years old. Even in college, where it is forbidden in the dorms, I had a pet bunny (I did eventually get permission from the dorm's RD)...

So when Stuart and I married, he knew I came with a bunny (or two).

At present, we have six bunnies. The current group started with Bonny and Clyde, the two Himalayan Netherland Dwarf bunnies I bought at the Reading Fair three years ago. (I couldn't decide which one to purchase...so in the end I bought both of them. Oops. *grin*)

We bred them a year later and got Bubble and Squeak, our two girls. Then about six months later, we bred them again for Emily to have a 4-H project and got Earl Grey and Clementine, the boys.

Since all the kits were born in a Clementine box, I wanted to call one of them Clementine. Bubble and Squeak fit their names from the start. Enter the second litter -- both boys. Hmm...I didn't really consider it a boy's name (Think: the "Clementine" song...) until I read the history of the fruit. So we used it, but since Emily named his brother Earl Grey (after her favorite tea) we decided Clemmie needed a more noble name so he's officially Sir Clement of the River Tyne.

Clemmie is a veritable "lovebug." He often reminds me of other bunnies I had in the past. He gives kisses and has a very docile personality, loving to cuddle and be petted.

Until...

He's around other bunnies.

Then he a real boss!

We recently had a 4-H trip to a mental hospital. We took the younger boys. There Clemmie hopped around the table, nudging the other bunnies and even a guinea pig. Then he mounted Earl Grey.

I'd recently read that when an animal does this to another of the same gender, he/she is trying to show dominance. I've explained that to the kids, thus avoiding a rehashing of the "birds and the bees" chat which one has had and the other is too young for, but I hadn't tested it out on the public yet.

One of the patients who was mildly retarded seemingly knew all about the "birds and the bees" and began shouting at Clementine, "No sex! No sex, Clementine!"

About six pairs of eyes widened as the younger 4-H kids thought about what he said.

I quickly explained to the man that Clementine was just dominating -- or trying to boss -- Earl Grey...not make babies.

To which he then shouted, "No bossing, Clementine! No bossing!"

Clementine paid him no heed, and by the time we got home was his quiet, demure self again.

Burn, Baby, Burn!

I've never been a patient person.

To me, " a watched pot never boils" means toss out the pot and throw the water in a microwave.

Around age 10, I got interested in drawing horses, and I wanted to draw them perfectly NOW. No practice necessary. Same thing went for learning to play the flute.

Ergo, patience is not a virtue for me.

So suntanning is not a treat for me as it might be for other people. I'm no "beach bunny." I'd almost rather burn than spend countless hours trying to turn my skin a beautiful golden brown. Notice, I said almost.

Much has been said regarding the numbering system on sunblocks and suntanning lotions. I've never really figured out how one is supposedly better than another when my mother's dermatologist told her that anything over 15 spf is about the same. Hmmm....

Now, before anyone sends me links to articles on the differences noted above, it doesn't really matter too much to me. We spend a total of one week at the beach. That's only 168 hours. And of those hours, we spend maybe 16-20 hours in the sunshine. Not really enough time to fry too much.

Okay. Okay. Unless we come to the beach in the middle of a heatwave.....

Oh, well.

Bunny Noses

5 THINGS TO BE HAPPY ABOUT

• dancing in the rain

• asparagus omelets

• racewalking

• a rabbit’s nose twitching

• shopping for Easter outfits

Our Clementine demonstrates the cuteness of a bunny's twitching nose.